[Lloyd Ma'ole - Workforce Central Dunedin] It's pretty unusual for a capital build of this size to happen from scratch and particularly a hospital. It's going to have ripple effects because this is a 10-year project.

[Andrew Franicevic - Southbase Construction] This project is currently sitting around 200 million dollar asset for the Dunedin community and that's a raw build cost.

[Mike Collins - Business South] So it's hugely exciting but presents a whole lot of challenges as well. We know that about 68 percent of businesses are really looking for a skilled workforce.

[Raymond Clark - Workforce Central Dunedin] And we have a massive skills shortage of qualified, skilled workers in New Zealand.

It is crucial to have those workers to deliver a world-class facility. 

[Natasha Riches - Waihanga Ara Rau Workforce Development Council] The Workforce Development Council Waihanga Ara Rau was put together to be a voice from industry into the vocational education system, make sure they've got what they need from their vocational education. 

[Mark Cartwright - Otago Polytechnic | Te Pūkenga] The reforms of vocational education in New Zealand has really allowed us to engage with industry,  with employers to really cater to their needs.  

[Raymond] Cable laying is a massive need for the new Dunedin hospital because there are hundreds of kilometres of data and electric cabling which need to be laid so by linking the industry to the Workforce Development Council they came back to us with a qualification for cable laying which lights up that pathway so these qualifications will become national in the future.

[Lloyd] It's really important for industry to input into skills training because they are vital, they're the ones who are going to be employing these people at the end of the day.

[Mike] And that's what we need at the moment to create a real vibrant infrastructure project.

[Raymond] So I think the reforms in vocational education has created a bit of innovation, a bit of energy and a bit of excitement for new things to be tried.

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